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HIGH

CVE-2023-36632

CVSS v3

7.5

HIGH

EPSS Score

1.6 %

exploit probability, as of 2026-10-18

CISA KEV

No

known exploited

Exploitation

—

SSVC status

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Affected and fixed versions

Packages from OSV.dev and products from the vendors' CSAF advisories.

version not verifiedVersions not verified: read as OSV.dev and the vendors publish them, not checked against each vendor's release list.

Packages

  • pythonBitnamiall versions · fixed in 3.11.5and 2 other packages

Vendor advisories

  • CVE-2023-36632 Red Hat Product Security

    python: RecursionError: maximum recursion depth exceeded while calling a Python object

Full record on NVD

Description

The legacy email.utils.parseaddr function in Python through 3.11.4 allows attackers to trigger "RecursionError: maximum recursion depth exceeded while calling a Python object" via a crafted argument. This argument is plausibly an untrusted value from an application's input data that was supposed to contain a name and an e-mail address. NOTE: email.utils.parseaddr is categorized as a Legacy API in the documentation of the Python email package. Applications should instead use the email.parser.BytesParser or email.parser.Parser class. NOTE: the vendor's perspective is that this is neither a vulnerability nor a bug. The email package is intended to have size limits and to throw an exception when limits are exceeded; they were exceeded by the example demonstration code.

Technical details

Published
2023-06-25

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2023-36632?

The legacy email.utils.parseaddr function in Python through 3.11.4 allows attackers to trigger "RecursionError: maximum recursion depth exceeded while calling a Python object" via a crafted argument. This argument is plausibly an untrusted value from an application's input data that was supposed to contain a name and an e-mail address. NOTE: email.utils.parseaddr is categorized as a Legacy API in the documentation of the Python email package. Applications should instead use the email.parser.BytesParser or email.parser.Parser class. NOTE: the vendor's perspective is that this is neither a vulnerability nor a bug. The email package is intended to have size limits and to throw an exception when limits are exceeded; they were exceeded by the example demonstration code.

Is CVE-2023-36632 actively exploited?

Active exploitation of CVE-2023-36632 has not been confirmed. Its EPSS score was 1.6% on 2026-10-18, the estimated probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2023-36632?

CVE-2023-36632 has a CVSS v3 base score of 7.5 (HIGH severity).

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